Abnormal Lives (37 page)

Kenneth shot Tony in his stomach and the three stood there and watched as Tony groaned and pleaded with God for his life until he died.

Kenneth, Jamal, and Jana crept out of the house and made their way back home to Florida, leaving Tessa and Tony in the house to rot.

Tessa had burned so many bridges that no one would come to check on her. On Halloween, kids would knock on the door but no one would answer. They would swear they heard knocking and bumping inside of the house and that the house was haunted. No one would be worried when Tessa didn't show up for Thanks-giving
or Christmas dinner. She had never graced her family with her presence, so there was no need to be alarmed.

Tony had no family and the so-called friends that he used to shoot up with had abandoned him years ago when they had found out that he had HIV. They couldn't shoot up with him anymore and they were too scared to be in the same room with him while he breathed, thinking somehow sharing the same air with him would contaminate them.

It wouldn't be until the Fourth of July, when the summer heat forced the stench of their rotting flesh out into the neighbor's yard during their cookout, the foulest scent they had ever smelled, that the authorities would be called and their bodies would be found.

Epilogue

W
inter came early that year; especially in Richmond, Virginia, with temperatures below forty in October. Children crowded around the oven, trying to keep warm while they waited for their parents to come home with dinner. Old folks sat around the table eating Sunday dinner, gossiping about Wayne Jasper being found guilty of sexual assault on a Richmond native, Simone Simmons. They shook their heads whenever someone mentioned his punishment; seven years probation.

“The things they let celebrities get away with,” they would say.

Then there was the video of Wayne having sex with Stefan. The explicit video was discussed on every television and radio station in the U.S. Stories about the nature of Wayne's relationship with Stefan were featured in every tabloid on grocery store shelves. When all of the talk about the video started to dwindle, it was posted on the Internet and gossip about Wayne reached an all-time high. It gave people one more thing to gossip about, in order to keep their minds off of their miserable lives and cold homes.

Rats made their way into the house where Tessa and Tony had lain dead, in order to keep themselves warm. Mother Nature showed her anger at the events of the summer by thrusting freezing winds in the faces of all the mothers that thought they had
better things to do than take care of their children; who thought running around town using their looks to persuade men out of their money and having a good time was more important than nurturing their children. Mother Nature did the same to the fathers who chose to be absent from their children's lives; who were more concerned with finding a woman that would show them a good time, no strings attached, than taking care of their children. Her cold air made them age before their time. Mother Nature gave frostbite to those who sat in the alley getting drunk and high all night and having sex on the side of sheds, instead of being at home nourishing the bodies and minds of their children. A lot of them became amputees by the summer and were still determined to maintain their reckless lifestyles.

Dennis visited his son's grave every day. He would sit down in front of his grave and weep, begging for his forgiveness. His teardrops froze as soon as they hit his cheeks. Maybe he should have prayed and asked God to give his message to Stefan. Although Stefan's body lay in its cozy coffin, warm under six feet of dirt, Stefan was long gone. When Dennis wasn't at Stefan's grave, he was searching for mediums, hoping they could help him to communicate with his son. The mediums sold him stories about his son. One told him that his son had been reborn and was living happily as a peacock. Another one told him that his son was his guardian angel; to repay the kindness he showed him when he was alive. The weirdest thing he was told by a medium was the child that he was trying to contact was a white woman who had died in a car accident. Dennis spent a couple thousand dollars consulting with mediums over the telephone and on the Internet, trying to contact his son. He only wanted to say that he was sorry.

Sandra tried to comfort Dennis. She told him that she didn't give a damn what any person or book said, Stefan was in Heaven,
he was with God, and he was fine. She spent many hours of her days and nights trying to drill into Dennis's head that Stefan had already forgiven him; now he needed to forgive himself. She convinced Dennis to write a letter to Stefan, telling him how he felt. They went to Stefan's grave and burned the letter, visualizing the smoke spreading throughout the universe and Dennis's message reaching Stefan. That was the day Sandra realized that she was in love with Dennis. After burning the letter he had written to his son, Dennis started to forgive himself and the love he had for his son made his skin glow. He was starting to heal.

A few months later, Sandra and her husband filed for divorce and Sandra and Dennis moved in together. They focused their energy on getting Anthony and Charlie into rehab and getting Simone out of jail. They didn't want her spending an entire year in jail, awaiting her trial. Although Simone had only left the state of Virginia once in her life, to go to Louisiana, the Judge didn't grant her bond. The Judge agreed with the commonwealth attorney who argued that Simone was a flight risk.

Wayne decided to go into hiding. He stayed in the house with his wife, Nicole, and they hired help to run their errands and a teacher to home school their children until the situation blew over. Nicole stood by Wayne and they decided to salvage their relationship. Two years later, Wayne found out he had HIV and Nicole tested positive for HIV also. The news made Nicole's soul ache and made Wayne despondent. Again, Nicole stood by him and gave him hope. What was done was done; there was no way they could change it. All they could do was take their medication, eat right, and live out the remainder of their lives, which they did together until their mid-seventies.

Paris used Valium to get high during the day; they calmed the tremors he experienced when the thought of Stefan decaying in
a coffin popped into his mind. At night, Paris got drunk and walked the streets of the French Quarter going from club to club. He often watched the female impersonators sing, dance, perform monologues, and mimic famous entertainers. He wondered did he have what it took to perform in a show. After a few months, Paris decided to audition for shows. During his stay in New Orleans, Paris performed ten shows using the name Madame Mojo. The show he was most proud of was the one he performed at Starlight by the Park, where he danced around in a skirt and a midriff top both made with bananas and yellow fishing rope. Just when New Orleans was starting to feel like home to Paris, that bitch of a hurricane hit. She tried to drown New Orleans. It seemed like she was sent to suck the carefree city deep into the earth and deliver it to the devil himself. After the looting, killing, and all the mayhem, Paris fled to Rhode Island and started his own brothel.

Simone was shipped to Pamunkey Regional Jail. She was in Hanover County's custody awaiting her trial. The first five months she was there, she spent more time in the infirmary on suicide watch than she did in medical quarantine. While Simone was on suicide watch, the corrections officer monitoring Simone recognized her. She remembered seeing Simone in a compromising picture; her husband, Mason, had hidden it in between some papers underneath the driver's seat of his car. Mason's wife made Simone's stay a living hell. When Mason's wife took Simone out of medical quarantine and put her into general population, she bribed another inmate to bully her in exchange for putting money on her account each month. Her supervisor confronted her about taking Simone out of medical quarantine and Mason's wife
explained her error by telling her that Simone was HIV positive. Mason's wife decided to get tested for HIV. When she got her test results back and found out that she had HIV, she went home and killed Mason and then headed to work, planning to kill Simone and make it look like self-defense. When Simone was bullied by another inmate, did the only friend she had stand up for her? Were Simone's grievances taken seriously? When Simone told the foreign psychiatrist, who couldn't discern what she spoke, how she was being treated, did he pretend to understand her and increase her dosage of Paxil and Klonopin, or did he put forth more effort to find out why she was distressed? Did Simone stand up for herself and become her own hero, or did she surrender her life to Mason's wife?

What happened to Simone? Well, that's another story.

Abnormal Lives
is Rae's introduction into the literary world. Rae resides in Richmond, Virginia with her family and is currently working on her next novel. Visit the author at
Facebook.com/DomainRae.

Discussion Questions

1. Which character was your favorite and why?

2. Do you think Stefan would have lived a different lifestyle if his father would have remained in his life?